Stalin's great turn

Question 1

When was the great turn announced

Answer 1

fifteenth party congress in Dec 1927 - was a year plan

Question 2

What was the great turn

Answer 2

Rapid industrialisation with high targets set for industry and the introduction of collectivisation into agriculture - the USSR needed an industrial base to produce more artillery as relations with powers such as Britain were declining.

Question 3

Did the party support the great turn

Answer 3

Bolsheviks felt it encouraged private markets etc - peasants weren’t good socialists and thus couldn’t be relied upon to produce grain for the state
However the party did support rapid industrialisation

Question 4

Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To increase military strength

Answer 4

1920s and 30s Stalin feared the USSR would be attacked - needed more industry to prepare

Question 5

Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To achieve self-sufficiency

Answer 5

become less dependent on the west

Question 6

Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To increase grain supplies

Answer 6

wanted to end dated farming practices - didn’t want the state to be at mercy of the peasants as usually a bad harvest would damage the economy

Question 7

Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To move towards a socialist society

Answer 7

Marxism = socialism can only happen in a highly industrialised state where most of the population were workers - only about 20% of the USSR’s pop. at this time were workers = need more industry etc

Question 8

Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To establish his credentials

Answer 8

Stalin needed to prove that he was the successor of Lenin - The great turn would make him a leader of historic importance

Question 9

Why did Stalin introduce the great turn - To improve standards of living

Answer 9

Wanted to catch up with the west - industrialisation created wealth for society

Question 10

Collectivisation - What

Answer 10

types of farm s=
1 - Toz = peasants owned land but shared machinery - common before 1930
2 - Sovkhoz = owned and run by the state - peasants paid regular wage like factory workers
3 - Kolkhoz = land run be an elected committee - up to 300 households put together - each household gets a small plot of private land - favoured in the 1930s

Question 11

Collectivisation - Why

Answer 11

• more land farmed more efficiently = much higher food production
• mechanisation - machine tractor stations (MTS) = less peasants needed to work the land
• allowed for socialist state to be created as peasants couldn’t sell grain to private merchants
• Stalin was struggling to get grain of the Kulaks

Question 12

Collectivisation - How

Answer 12

Force, terror and propaganda
- Stalin used class enemy = Kulak in an attempt to scare poorer peasants into joining the collectivised farms - didn’t work
- 25,000 urban party activists tasked with revolutionising the countryside
- Decree on 1st Feb 1930 = local party organisations have the power to use necessary measures against the Kulak as part of the Dekulakisation

Question 13

Collectivisation -impact

Answer 13

• party claimed that by Feb 1930, 50% of all peasant households had been collectivised - reality = disaster - 30% of all livestock killed etc
• Stalin stated in Pravda that the local officials were ‘dizzy with success’ - ended collectivisation until 1931 when it was reintroduced
• grain requisitioning led to the famine of 1932-34

Question 14

Collectivisation case study - Smolensk - what happened to the peasants

Answer 14

Kulaks forced to pay higher taxes etc - were prosecuted for grain concealment
- Kulaks dekulakising themselves by selling possessions etc
- Kulaks blackmailed to take their names of the deportation lists
- over 90% of peasant households in Kolkhozes by the end of the 1930s

Question 15

Collectivisation case study - Smolensk - Peasant resistance

Answer 15

• poorer peasants sided with the Kulaks - hid grain and attacked activists
• 200 peasants attacked a Kolkhoz with many of the attackers being women - OGPU noted that women had heavy involvement in the resistance

Question 16

How was collectivisation carried out - Inducements

Answer 16

modern machinery persuaded peasants to go to collectivised farms

Question 17

How was collectivisation carried out - Threats

Answer 17

peasants threatened with arrest or forced labour

Question 18

How was collectivisation carried out - Propaganda

Answer 18

party activists claimed collectivisation was voluntary - persuaded peasants that they were transforming the countryside for the better

Question 19

How was collectivisation carried out - OGPU

Answer 19

forced peasants into collectivised farms through the use of force - ‘I should surround villages with machine guns and order my men to fire indiscriminately into the crowds of peasants.’

Question 20

Stalin’s wife’s view

Answer 20

told by students about the famine in the countryside - believed Stalin was mad - died in November 1932 - suicide - Stalin stated ‘she died my enemy

Question 21

Results of collectivisation

Answer 21

• peasants forced to make soup out of dandelions and nettles
• peasants tortured by requisitioning squads
• to talk of famine = offense and = 3-5yrs in the Gulag
• Gulag pop. rose from 30,000 to 2 million in 3 years
• Stalin signed 3000 death warrants each day

Question 22

Collectivisation economically successful

Answer 22

• collected 22.8 million tonnes of grain by 1931 = financed industrialisation - 1.7 million tonnes were exported in 1932

Question 23

Collectivisation economically failure

Answer 23

• Grain production didn’t surpass pre-collectivisation levels until after 1935
• Harvests dropped dramatically in the 1930s
• mass loss of livestock as peasants killed them
• peasant’s had nothing to work for so didn’t work very hard = passive resistance

Question 24

Collectivisation politically successful

Answer 24

• sevenths - eights law = 10 years sentence for stealing anything owned by the state
• economy was now not controlled by peasants - party now had more control over the countryside
• internal passports stopped peasants from fleeing the farms

Question 25

The human cost of Collectivisation

Answer 25

- 1932 famine in Ukraine = 7 million deaths over 2 yrs with 5million of these being in Ukraine - Internal passports meant peasants couldn't leave famine ridden areas - 10 million peasants disposed of between 1929 and 1932 - THE FAMINE WAS MAN-MADE

Question 26

Industrialisation - Why

Answer 26

Economic - a way to achieve socialism and protect the country from attacks - 1937 = USSR virtually self-sufficient - urgent armaments needed to get ready for WW2 - Stalin believed the USSR was 100 years behind the West and wanted to close this gap in the next 10yrs Political - for Stalin to solidify his power Ideological - creating a new society which would be superior compared to their capitalist neighbours

Question 27

Industrialisation - How

Answer 27

- the reintroduction of the Tsarist internal passport system - industrial targets for output set - failure to meet these targets = a criminal offence - four major industrial commissars including one for heavy industry

Question 28

Who set the targets for the 5year plans

Answer 28

state decided what and when something was to be produced by

Question 29

Vesenkha

Answer 29

head = Rykov - supreme economic council - agreed with Stalin that the majority of investment needed to go into coal, iron and steel production

Question 30

other organisations involved?

Answer 30

foreign companies sent engineers and skilled workers to help build new factories and exploit the new resources

Question 31

Role of the Gosplan

Answer 31

- state planning commission - set up in 1921 to work out inputs each industry would need to meet the targets set for them

Question 32

Role of a manager or director

Answer 32

sole responsibility for meeting output targets

Question 33

1st 5 Year plan

Answer 33

October 1928 - December 1932 Aims = Heavy industry accounted for 80% of the investment Successes = - Electricity production tripled and coal and iron output doubled - huge new tractor works were built to meet the needs of mechanised agriculture Failures - decline in consumer industries e.g. food processing due to drive against Nepmen - lack of skilled workers Other Info = climate of fear as Gosplan and the Vesenkha up bid each other, setting higher targets for industry's etc

Question 34

2nd 5 Year plan

Answer 34

January 1933 to December 1937 Aims of plan = Heavy industry still priority but also greater emphasis on communications e.g. rail links etc. Successes - Heavy industry benefitting from successes of the first plan such as increased electricity production - By 1937 the USSR was virtually self - sufficient in metal- working - Rationing abolished - defence output increased by 300% Failures - Consumer goods industries still lagging other info - targets for industrial output were scaled back - Gulag labour made up 10% of the workforce

Question 35

3rd 5 Year plan

Answer 35

January 1938 to June 1941 - need for armaments became increasingly urgent Successes - Heavy industry continued to grow - Defence and armaments grew rapidly Failures - Steel output grew insignificantly - oil production failed to meet targets which led to a fuel crisis - shortage of skilled labour Other info - exceptionally harsh winter in 1938 slowed the initial progress of the plan

Question 36

Magnitogorsk

Answer 36

- Americans moved to the city during the great depression in hope of finding work - the area lacked roads and sewage pipes - a lack of fuel for fires meant many died due to the cold - most of the workers were peasants - could be shot for stealing timber etc - room in every barrack called the 'red barrack' which spread propaganda - if you made mistakes you were seen as a sabotage

Question 37

White sea Baltic canal

Answer 37

Background - constructed between 1930-1933 - shortens journey from St Petersburg by 2500 miles Successes - the speed the soviets completed the project was well sought of at the time by other nations - led to the development of many towns and cities along it's banks Failures - over 25,000 Gulag prisoners died during the construction - The canal was too shallow to have large ships use it = couldn't be used to transport aval vessels which had been originally planned

Question 38

Moscow metro

Answer 38

first opened in May 1935 Successes - Stalin saw it as a showcase of socialism being one of the biggest and busiest subways in the world - Known for beauty with each station being decorated - socialist realism = form of propaganda to motivate the population Failures - most of the British engineers that helped with it's construction were deported after a show trial

Question 39

Dnieprostori dam

Answer 39

- Completed in October 1932 - provides 80% of Ukraine's water resources Successes - Destroyed to reduce the access of resources for the Nazis when they invaded - showed the Soviets will to resist - Rebuilt in 1950 and is still in operation today Failures - cost $110 million to build initially - destruction of the dam killed up to 100,000 - led to hatred from Ukrainians towards the USSR - Ukrainians allowed the Nazis in willingly

Question 40

Magnitogorsk - what and when

Answer 40

gigantic steel plant - construction completed in 1935

Question 41

Magnitogorsk - what happened to raw materials here

Answer 41

firms requested more than they needed - hoarded materials - quality very poor also

Question 42

Magnitogorsk - Who worked there

Answer 42

typically ex-peasant with almost half of the workers being under the age of 24 By 1932 75% were there on there own free will

Question 43

Magnitogorsk - Ural river dam

Answer 43

built to supply the steel factory with water - the dam was built in just 74 days - although poorly constructed = chronic shortage of water

Question 44

Magnitogorsk -who was VP Ogorodnikov

Answer 44

- name features 4 times in a list of 8 record-breaking shifts in Magnitogorsk - rewarded with a motorcycle and a house and became a household name

Question 45

Magnitogorsk - living standards

Answer 45

- only 15% lived in permanent housing with 25% living in mud huts

Question 46

Foreign help during the five year plans

Answer 46

- companies sent specialist's and skilled workers etc to build new factories etc -Henry ford helped the Russians develop a car industry - the Great depression in America forced many Americans to go to the USSR in search for jobs

Question 47

Stakhanovite movement

Answer 47

30th August 1935 - workers extracted 102 tonnes of coal in one shift - received large pay bonus, an apartment and a holiday etc

Question 48

who came up with the Stakhanovite movement

Answer 48

Konstain petrov- party organiser who's area had fallen behind it's quota

Question 49

Stakhanovite movement spreading across the USSR

Answer 49

several other miners demanded the chance to beat the record - Stalin called for Stakhanovism to be spread 'widely and deeply' across the Soviet Union

Question 50

Stakhanovite movement propaganda value

Answer 50

Ordozkidze called him the 'soviet Hercules.'

Question 51

Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Men: peasants

Answer 51

- half of the labour force at the end of the first five year plan were peasants - very high labour turnover - 1930 = workers changed jobs 3 times a year - peasants found it difficult to adapt to factory work

Question 52

Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Men: Skilled workers

Answer 52

- rare so factories wanted to attract them - offered high wages etc - less than 7% of the workforce were skilled

Question 53

Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Managers

Answer 53

- not meeting targets = wreckers - under lot's of pressure from the government and the workers - desperate to keep skilled workers - 'it's necessary not too work well but to account well.'

Question 54

Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Women

Answer 54

-10 million entered the workforce - dominated professions such as teaching and medicine - generally paid less - Petrograd women made up 44% of the workforce

Question 55

Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Tough measure

Answer 55

- wage differentials = reward skilled workers etc - Tough measures in 1930-1933 to deal with absenteeism - included dismissal, etc -1938 = labour books and internal passports issued - difficult to survive without a labour book

Question 56

Living and working conditions in the five year plans - Forced labour

Answer 56

- peasants forced into industrial work by collectivisation - high rates of absenteeism - after April 1930, all criminals sentenced to over 3 yrs were sent to a labour camp = provided cheap labour

Question 57

Strengths of the economy by 1941

Answer 57

- Become highly industrialised nation - By 1940 the USSR had overtaken Britain in in Iron and Steel production - nine aircraft factories constructed in 1939 - also producing 100,000 rifles per month - Stalin had come closer to achieving true socialism

Question 58

Weaknesses of the economy by 1941

Answer 58

- Soviet claims and statistics were often exaggerated - 3rd 5 year plan was left incomplete and was still producing less grain than under the NEP